Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, with his crushing win in the Nevada caucuses marking a third straight victory in state contests.

Rubio captured second place with fewer than 2,000 more votes than Cruz as final vote totals were reported Wednesday morning.

Trump, the billionaire New York businessman, now can claim victories in the West, the South and Northeast -- a testament to his broad appeal among voters frustrated with the political establishment. His rivals are running out of time to stop him.

On Wednesday, Trump won his first endorsements from sitting members of Congress, with Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York announcing they are backing him for the Republican presidential nomination.

Listing the upcoming primary states where he's leading in preference polls, Trump predicted he'll soon be able to claim the nomination. "It's going to be an amazing two months," he told a raucous crowd at a Las Vegas casino. "We might not even need the two months, folks, to be honest."

A candidate must have 1,237 state delegates to win the Republican nomination at the National Convention this summer. Trump won 14 delegates in Nevada. Rubio won seven, and Ted got six. Overall, Trump has 81 delegates so far, and Cruz and Rubio have 17 apiece.

Rubio and Cruz are battling to emerge as the clear alternative to Trump. Lagging behind in the Republican race are Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

The race for the nomination in both major political parties has produced candidates who reflect a deepening anger among American voters with the gridlock during much of the Obama administration. Trump and Cruz in particular have found strong support among such voters.

Entrance polls in Nevada captured the sentiment propelling Trump's insurgent campaign: Six in 10 caucus goers said they were angry with the way the government is working, and Trump got about half of them.

After winning in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, Trump has momentum heading into March 1, or Super Tuesday. It is the biggest single-day delegate haul of the nomination contests. Republicans will vote in 11 states, with 595 delegates at stake. Democrats will vote in 11 states and American Samoa, with 865 delegates up for grabs.

On Wednesday, Cruz won the endorsement of the governor in his home state of Texas, the largest of the Super Tuesday states.

On the Democrat side, impatient voters have rallied around Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist, who has put up a strong challenge to front-runner and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Clinton was looking for a commanding victory over Sanders in Saturday's South Carolina primary to give her a boost heading into Super Tuesday. Polls show the former first lady with a huge advantage among African-Americans, which bodes well for her prospects in the Southern states that vote next week.

Adding to her momentum on Wednesday, the Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid endorsed Clinton for the presidential nomination.

Advertisements

Latest Canada & World News

Dr. Sarah Giles has been home in Canada for two weeks, but her heart is still aboard the migrant rescue ship MV Aquarius, where she spent the past four months in the Mediterranean Sea as part of her ongoing work with Doctors Without Borders.
Source

Florida's governor says South Beach is no longer an active infection zone for the Zika virus. Gov. Rick Scott was joined by tourism officials Friday to make the announcement. The first cases of Zika transmission through mosquito bites on the U.S.
Source

TORONTO - The family of a doctor found strangled and beaten to death is expressing gratitude for an outpouring of support. In a statement today, the relatives of Dr. Elana Fric say they are especially grateful for the support shown for her three young children.
Source

MADRID -- More than 400 migrants from Africa stormed across a border fence to enter Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Friday in one of the biggest crossing attempts of recent years.
Source

?Two women suicide bombers blew themselves up at a bustling market in northeast Nigeria's Madagali town on Friday morning, killing at least 30 people and wounding 67, an army spokesman told The Associated Press.
The attack comes as Nigeria's government claims it is routing the Boko Haram Islamic extremists blamed for the blasts.
Source

Dwayne De Rosario felt the glory of lifting the MLS Cup four times during his soccer career, but never with Toronto FC.
He's retired from professional soccer now, but De Rosario is still a TFC ambassador.
Source

A large number of deer are dying while trying to cross a New Brunswick river covered in thin ice. The deer are attempting to get to a deer yard where they spend most of their winter, but many aren’t surviving the Northwest Miramichi River crossing.
Source

Montana's governor is being asked to act on a petition to spare the life of a Canadian who's been on death row in the United States for over three decades.
Ronald Smith, who is originally from Red Deer, Alta.
Source

An Eastern Ontario mother who was out walking when a vehicle hit her infant daughter’s stroller, wants the driver to turn himself in to authorities. The incident happened in Kemptville, Ont., near Ottawa on Tuesday.
Source

A man wanted for killing a Georgia police officer and wounding another was found dead Thursday, apparently fatally shooting himself before a SWAT team stormed a home where a tipster reported the suspect was hiding.
The manhunt for 32-year-old Minquell Lembrick ended a day after a gunman killed Americus police Officer Nicholas Smarr and critically wounded Officer Jody Smith of Georgia Southwestern State University.
Source